By Damola Emmanuel
The Federal Government has thrown its full weight behind Dr. Akinwumi Adesina, President of the African Development Bank, AfDB, rubbishing the allegations of corruption levelled against him, for which the bank’s ethics committee had given him a clean bill of health; but for which America’s Treasury Department had called for a fresh probe.
The-Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Mrs. Zainab Ahmed, communicated the Nigerian government’s decision to trump support for Adesina in a letter to the Chairman of the Board of Governors of the AfDB, calling on the financial institution to shun any call for a fresh probe on his tenure.
In the letter, the Minister conveyed the Federal Government’s express support for the Nigeria-born world-class development economist and agricultural development expert, insisting he had done and is still doing a great job for the bank.
The suave agricultural expert with over 25 years of international experience was also a Minister of Agriculture in Nigeria.
“The call for an ‘independent investigation’ of the President is outside of the laid down rules, procedures and governing system of the bank and its articles as it relates to the Code of Conduct on Ethics for the President,” Mrs. Ahmed declared in the letter.
“As Board of Governors (made up of the finance ministers of member countries), we must uphold the rule of law and respect the governance systems of the bank. If there’s any governance issues that needs improvement, these can be considered and amendments proposed for adoption in line with laid down procedures.
“The Nigerian Government welcomes the conclusion of the Ethics Committee and the decision of the Chair of the Board of Governors.
“The Ethics Committee, following three months of work to examine the whistleblowers’ allegations made against the President, dismissed each and every one of the allegations of the whistleblowers against the President as unsubstantiated and baseless.”
Ahmed didn’t stop there. She said Adesina’s accomplishments as the President of the AfDB were unparalleled in the bank’s history.
These, she listed, include: securing a General Capital Increase of $115bn, the largest ever in the history of the bank; leading the bank to develop a $10bn Crisis Response Facility for Africa to fight the coronavirus pandemic, as well as leading the bank to launch a $3bn “Fight COVID19” social bond, the largest US dollar-denominated social bond ever in world’s history.
The Minister dismissed the calls for “independent investigation”, saying they were outside laid down rules, procedures and guidelines of the laws governing the bank and any changes to that must follow laid down procedures.